1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a heat sink. More particularly, the present invention relates to a heat sink applied to a portable electronic device.
2. Related Art
Currently, with the rapid development of electronic science and technology, and the increasing attention that consumers pay to light, thin, and portable characteristics of consumable electronic products, electronic products, e.g. notebook computers, ultra mobile personal computers (UMPC), PDAs, and other portable electronic devices, are gradually developed toward miniaturization. For users who often travel outside, the portable electronic products are more convenient to carry, thus greatly improving the convenience in use.
However, the rapid operation speed of the electronic components inside the computer device, and the small volume of the electronic components incur a higher thermal energy generation amount per units. If the generated thermal energy cannot be dissipated in time, the over-high temperature will seriously influence the stability and efficiency of the electronic components in operation, and even reduce the service life of the computer device or cause damage to the computer device.
For example, small-sized portable electronic devices such as flat panel computers and UMPCs are fabricated to be light, thin, and portable, so as to cater for the consumers' demands for the small-sized computer devices. Therefore, it is difficult to install an additional heat sink fan in the portable computer device with limited free space. Consequently, the portable computer device without the design of fan cannot utilize the forced convection of air, and relies only on the natural convection and thermal radiation between the heat sink and the air to dissipate thermal energy, and thus the thermal dissipation effect is unsatisfactory, and cannot meet the thermal dissipation requirements of the portable electronic apparatus with high operation speed.
In order to solve the thermal dissipation problem of the portable computer device, the conventional method reduces the operating frequency of the electronic components, such as central processing units (CPU), so as to prevent the generation of too much thermal energy. Or, the conventional method increases the thermal dissipation surface area of the computer device, so as to dissipate the thermal energy generated by the electronic components from the computer device via the thermal dissipation surface of large area.
Although the thermal energy generated by the portable computer device in operation may be reduced by lowering the operating frequency of the electronic components, the overall performance of the computer device is influenced, which does not meet the demands of the consumers for high operating performance of the electronic products. Also, the thermal dissipation of the electronic device relying only on the natural convection and thermal radiation is insufficient.
The increased thermal dissipation surface area for dissipating thermal energy leads to the increase of the overall volume of the computer device, such that the portable computer device cannot be miniaturized, which is against the current trend of light, thin, short, and small electronic products in the market.